School bus, truck collide on Long Island

November 22, 2010 9:35:28 AM PST

Eyewitness News

MIDDLE ISLAND, N.Y. --

Police say 17 students, their driver and another driver have been taken to hospitals after a school bus collided with a truck on Long Island, but none of the injuries is considered serious. A police officer was hit by a car while directing traffic surrounding the accident, suffering a serious back injury, Suffolk County police said. They had no information on the car's driver.

The rush-hour wreck in eastern Long Island left many of the bus' windows smashed and its side partly crumpled; the box truck's front end was badly damaged.

The bus was from the Longwood School District, but the students' ages were not immediately available. The school district superintendent, school board president and a spokeswoman did not immediately return telephone calls; board member Genine Schwinge declined to comment and referred calls to the superintendent and board president.

Michael Parker told Newsday his daughter Miasya, 12, was taking the bus home from basketball practice at Longwood Junior High School. She ended up at Stony Brook University Medical Center with a big gash in her neck, said her father, 39.

"I will be picking her up from now on," he told the newspaper.

The rest of the victims were not immediately identified, and police were unsure what activity or activities the students were involved in.

Officials with the company that apparently operated the bus, Atlantic Express, did not immediately return a telephone message.

A total of four students were being treated at Stony Brook University Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Lauren Sheprow said; police said the injured officer also was taken there.

The bus crash happened at about 5:25 p.m. on Longwood Road in Middle Island, about 60 miles east of Manhattan. Police blocked long stretches of the surrounding roads; the police officer was hit about two miles away around 7:45 p.m.